Baking on a small wood heating stove?

The Healthy Table
Amanda Witman
By Amanda Witman on Sun, Dec 23, 2012 - 11:48am

I have been thinking lately that it's a shame to turn on the oven for baking when the woodstove is already hot.  I just realized that it's possible to get an "oven" to go on top of the woodstove.  I have a small woodstove (Vermont Castings Resolute, c. 1985) and the stovepipe is installed vertically from the back.  There is a griddle-shaped cooktop, but the total flat surface area is only 10" deep by 14" wide. 

I like the look of St. Paul Mercantile's butterfly oven, but it is 13" square so would not fit flush (there is a handle on the front of the griddle top that sticks up a bit, unfortunately.)  Even the Coleman oven is 12" square.  I suppose I could have one made, but that's a little beyond me right now, though I'm open to the possibility

Have others had success baking on the top of your heating woodstove?

I already have a 9-quart dutch oven that may fit on the top of my stove (as well as a 6-quart one).  Can I use that for stovetop baking?

I don't want or need a larger woodstove for heating my home, and although I have friends who have installed wood cookstoves in their kitchen in addition to a home-heating woodstove and a conventional stove, I don't have the space or the budget to do that.  We would have to install an exterior chimney, and we just did that for our heating stove and it cost about $3500 not including the stove.  I figure there must be some way to "make do" with the woodstove I have.  I would love to hear others' ideas and experiences with this sort of thing.

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4 Comments

Wed, Dec 26, 2012 - 12:10pm
#1
treebeard's picture
treebeard
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Soap stone

We have a Woodstock soapstone stove (fireview).  I think that we have had it for about 15 years.  The stove advertises that you can cook right on the soapstone, but that has never really worked out.  We have used it to melt snow in power outages and have made soup on the top.  We have not really tried to do more than that.  Seem like even thought the surface temperature usually runs around 500 to 600 degrees, its not hot enough to really cook on.

The frame around the top and across the middle makes each of the soapstone panels too small to work well.  Our house is passive solar so the stove does not run constantly in the winter, we are a bit low on thermal mass so on sunny days the house overheats, so it's not convenient to cook on it a lot of days.

I do like making bread, if you find out about something that can sit on top for that purpose, I would love to try that out.  I am thinking about building an outdoor bread oven for the summer. Has anyone seen any good plans for that?

I have seen workshops in open hearth cooking, has anybody attended one of those?

Wed, Dec 26, 2012 - 6:29pm
(Reply to #1) #2
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Outdoor bread oven

Here is a link about someone building an outdoor bread oven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=OxmfC7nMTlY

Wed, Jan 9, 2013 - 2:50pm
#3
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AkGrannyWGrit
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Dutch Ovens

Last fall I took a Dutch Oven class and learned that the majority of cooking comes from the top of the pot. I recommend that you get a good Dutch Oven recipe book with a temperature chart. We don't have hard wood up here so we used charcoal. The charts will tell you how much coals or charcoal you need to use underneath and on top of your Dutch Oven. I baked a great sweet-roll using the Dutch Oven as well as a pineapple upside down cake, a roast and a vegetable dish as well. Using a Dutch Oven is really easier than you think, and yes you can bake with one. Like everything else a little practice will provide wonderful results. Experiment and have some fun then share your results with all of us.

AK Granny

Wed, Jan 9, 2013 - 9:03pm
(Reply to #3) #4
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Amanda Witman
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Thanks, AK Granny!

I have a couple of dutch ovens, but they're not the coal-keeping kind.  I do have one 6qt with the coal-keeping lid and will need to borrow it back from a friend to try this.

I wish Lodge or someone would make those lids interchangeable.  I'm pretty sure the coal-keeping lids (for cooking on coals) can't mix and match with the self-basting (in-oven) ones.

I am not sorry to have left my last home behind, but it did have a bit of a hearth and fireplace, and I don't have that here, just the woodstove.

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